The present invention relates generally to an insulation displacement connector or terminal used to electrically connect wires and cables. More particularly, it relates to a terminal having an improved internal cantilevered beam.
It has been known in the art that insulated wire can be terminated or connected by means of a solderless terminal without first stripping away the insulation. To this end, it has been known that the insulation of a wire could be skived away by forcing the wire into a terminal slot having a dimension less than the combined diameter of the wire and its insulation. The insulation having thereby been skived, the slot deforms and grips the bare wire to provide for both mechanical and electrical contact. Early versions of such insulation displacement terminals were employed in terminal blocks used for interconnecting telephone system wiring. Other versions have been used with round conductor ribbon cable.
Insulation displacement connectors have been extensively used for terminating conductors having soft plastic insulation. To a lesser extent, the solderless prior art connectors have been applied to solid magnet wire having a harder, tougher insulation.
Problems, however, have arisen with respect to the known insulation displacement connectors. For example, the terminals often fail to connect conductors having ranges any larger than one or two AWG sizes. This limitation of range has required the manufacture, purchase and storage of several sizes of connectors when a user is presented with the problem of connecting cables having many AWG sizes.
Another limitation of the prior art connectors has been the difficulty of achieving consistent displacement of the harder, tougher insulation or coating commonly used on solid magnet wire. The connection problems associated with magnet wire are amplified because these wires normally have small diameters. Consequently, it is necessary for the insulation displacement connector to have appropriate means to displace the tough magnet wire insulation, but yet not cut the wire itself or unacceptably weaken it. The narrow diameter of the magnet wire also creates manufacturing problems with slot tolerances.
It has also been difficult to utilize a single connector to interconnect magnet wire to larger diameter solid or stranded wire.
Finally, another problem has been the difficulty of maintaining a gas-tight interface at the point of terminal and wire contact.